He's GOP and GAY

 The boss of the Franklin County Republican Party is gay, 
and he says that's not big news

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By Kristen Convery / Sept. 16, 2004 
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Ben French

 "This is about as secret as where the Ohio Stadium is": Doug Preisse said acquaintances have known he's gay for years

 If Doug Preisse had gathered a roomful of friends, politicos and public-affairs reporters last week and formally announced that he is gay, he would have faced some mighty puzzled looks.

To most of that crowd, it's no secret. The 41-year-old chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, elected in April, has been out among his acquaintances, he said, for "many years."

But when average votersÑRepublicans or DemocratsÑlearn that the man running Central Ohio's GOP is gay, jaws are going to drop.

"I had sat down with him numerous times telling him that he had an obligation to tell people; he had an obligation to make that clear," said a fellow Republican and friend of Preisse's. The friend said Preisse usually responded with, "I know, I know, I know."

He made it clear Sunday, between a pair of commas deep within a Columbus Dispatch story.

The paper slipped information about his sexual orientation into a piece about Mary Jo Hudson, the first openly gay appointee to Columbus City Council.

"Franklin County Republican Chairman Doug Preisse, who is gay, said it would be disingenuous to think that Hudson's sexual orientation isn't a subject of discussion among GOP leaders," the story said.

The subtle, matter-of-fact aside belied the stunning nature of the disclosure. The party that devotes enormous quantities of its time, energy and rhetoric to opposing same-sex unions is, in Columbus, run by a gay man.

Not that there's anything interesting about that, at least if you ask Preisse.

"This is about as secret as where the Ohio Stadium is," he said this week.

But it came as a shock to lots of peopleÑboth regular people who barely knew who the Republican chairman is, much less that he is gay, and political types who know Preisse is gay but were shocked to read it in the newspaper.

"Are you sure it said that?" Republican state Sen. David Goodman asked of the Dispatch story, which he had not read.

"I had no idea," said one prominent Democrat. "I was like, 'Damn. Somebody outed him.'"

Kate Anderson, executive director of Stonewall Columbus, heard from plenty of people who were "wondering if he outed himself or if someone had outed him."

Even at Democrat-run City Hall, the phones were ringing with people wondering whether the Dispatch had forced Preisse's hand. Monday evening, Preisse was a hot topic of conversation outside the City Council meeting where Hudson's swearing-in was making history.

Preisse said he had no qualms about answering honestly when Dispatch reporter Mark Ferenchik asked him if he is gay, and he figured the paper already knew.

"The Dispatch doesn't exist in a vacuumÉ. They're very well-informed people over there," Preisse said. "I've had informal discussions with members of the media from lots of different organizations."

Yet last week was the first time he can remember a reporter directly asking him about his sexual orientation.

"I think that the chairman of the party is a semi-public position," he said. "People want to know what my favorite color is, I'll tell them."

"Let's face it, it's a matter of interest to some people. I can't say I was dwelling too much on when it would come out."

But he declared some things off-limits.

He declined to discuss whether he has a partner, for instance. And he would not comment on speculation that he did not want to come out publicly while his mother, who recently died, was still alive.

"I don't frankly see the value of it," he said. "I'm not running for public office. Is a party position semi-public? Sure. Am I running for public office? No."

If you're shocked that Doug Preisse is gay, track down some old news stories about who would take over the county Republican Party when longtime former chairman Mike Colley stepped down.

Preisse seemed a natural for the job: a smooth, charismatic lobbyist who'd spent more than two decades helping Republicans' campaignsÑMike DeWine, Pat Tiberi, George Voinovich, Ronald Reagan, both President Bushes.

Yet many of the religious right-wing members of the party were dead-set against the idea of a Chairman Preisse, even though he agreed with them on the standard litmus test: He's anti-abortion. Reporters weren't including it in their stories at the time, but the reason was simple. Conservative Republicans didn't want a gay chairman.

But time, as it turned out, was on Preisse's side. Colley's slow but sure decline as chairman allowed Preisse to size up the Republican Central Committee and figure out who he needed to win over in his effort to beat out lawyer Brad Sinnott.

A Republican source said Preisse focused like a laser beam on three key GOP players who had serious concerns about him: Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Ron O'Brien and former county officeholders Roger Tracy and Palmer McNeal. (Calls to those three went unreturned this week.)

He met with them about once a month, the source said, appealing to their desire for control.

"They wanted to be involved in every little petty decision," the source said.

Gradually, he said, the trio's attitude went from, "We will never support you because you're gay," to "What can we do for you?"

Preisse said he doesn't remember any of the three ever refusing to support him because he was gay.

"You know," he said, "those gentlemen and many others who I met with had a common end goal, and that was the health and success of the Franklin County Republican Party."

Preisse remembers fielding questions about how he'd reconcile his roles as a gay man and a Republican chairman from "a handful" of Republicans, but he said he can't recall the details of any of those conversations.

"That was a legitimate question," he said. "We're well beyond that now."

But when Preisse was vying for the chairmanship, that "legitimate question" gave plenty of Republicans pauseÑeven though the Preisse was not publicly out.

"Anybody over 55 fell into that category," the source said. "Anybody over 55 didn't want it, male or female. Make no mistake."

"Their big thing was, 'Well, you know, he might get handcuffed if somebody ever decides to out him,'" said another Republican close to Preisse.

That Republican said he was "a little disappointed" but "also relieved" to read the words "Preisse, who is gay" in the Dispatch. Now, the question of whether someone will maliciously "out" Preisse for political purposes is moot.

Goodman, one of the few Republicans who voted against the state's Defense of Marriage Act, said he got into politics because of Doug Preisse.

"All I'll ever say is there's no better person to be chairman of Franklin County right now than Doug Preisse," he said. "He's a Pied Piper of bringing people in and being a great leader."

All Republican lobbyist Neil Clark wants is a county party chairman who's "ethical, abides by the law and beats Democrats."

"I don't give a rat's ass if he's gay."

Kate Anderson does.

"I had no verification that he was gay, so I wasn't about to presume that he was," said the Stonewall boss.

Now that she knows for sure, she wants to sit down for a chat.

"I think it adds a different dynamic to the whole picture."

For one thing, there's the campaign of George W. Bush, whom Preisse supports. Some Republicans are uncomfortable with red-meat, gay-baiting rhetoric. President Bush is not among them.

Anderson said she is "very proud" that the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay branch of the GOP, recently decided not to endorse Bush.

"It's very difficult for many people in the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) community to understand how anyone could support the re-election of Bush," Anderson said.

She also wants Preisse to publicly oppose a proposed amendment to the state constitution, to be on this fall's ballot, which would prohibit gay marriage.

Jeni Horn, a conservative Republican who supports Preisse, doesn't see that happening.

Horn said she asked Preisse point-blank, "Are you going to be supporting the efforts to protect Ohio's definition of marriage?" He told her he would.

In an interview this week, Preisse refused to say where he stands on some of the most important issues facing gays and lesbians, including the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex marriage and bars the state from offering insurance benefits to gay couples.

"I got lots of questions running for chairman, and certainly I have strong feelings and personal positions on lots of issues," he said, explaining why he doesn't make it a point to address gay-rights issues. "It is not the role of the party chairman to be a champion for one issue or another."

It is his role to back Republican incumbents, starting with President Bush. And that's a role he said he embraces:

"I was a delegate to the convention. I'm fully on board with this campaign, from the president down to first-time judicial candidates."

That might disappoint Anderson, but it's not news to the Republicans who know Preisse.

"He's not the gay chairman of the party, he's the chairman of the party," one said. "We all have things we are. I'm a stamp collector. And he's gay."